Metal content. Whatever's still made out of metal in today's cars.

Probably hearing and seeing all the news buzz about gasoline prices
triggered this question, and I wonder if there IS a single good answer
to it?

My inquiring mind wants to know....

Why my last car had it's gas filler on the left rear fender, and my
latest one has it on the right rear fender? Glancing at cars around me
in traffic, it seems the distribution of right and left seems about equal.

Is there a method to this madness? I can't thing of an engineering
reason for the seemingly arbitrary right-left location of the fill caps.

So far I've had these thoughts about the subject:

In the USA, almost all passenger cars are left hand drive and I expect
that the majority of self serve gas pumping is performed by the driver.
Thus, a gas filler location on the left side of the vehicle gets the job
done with the fewest footsteps, so why does my latest car have it on the
right?

A car population with a roughly equal left-right distribution should
improve the chances that you'll find a gas station lane with a pump
available on the side your car's filler is on. (That ignores the
possibility of pulling the nozzle and hose across the car to reach a
filler on the other side. I remember doing that years ago, but don't
recall seeing it done anywhere recently, and don't even know if today's
typical hoses are ong enough to do that anyway.)

I suspect the "behind the rear license plate" filler is fasy becoming a
relic of the past.

Thoughts or answers guys?


Jeff (Whose first car had its gas filler a couple of inches in front of
the center of the windshield. It was a '31 Model A Ford. G)

--
Jeffry Wisnia

(W1BSV + Brass Rat '57 EE)

"Truth exists; only falsehood has to be invented."